Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience – Tamah Kamlem

As the incoming administration builds its agenda of attack on marginalized people, on freedom of speech, on the earth itself, poetry will continue to be an essential voice of resistance. Poets will speak out in solidarity, united against hatred, systemic oppression, and violence and for justice, beauty, and community.

                

In this spirit, Split This Rock is offering its blog as a Virtual Open Mic. For the rest of this frightening month, January of 2017, we invite you to send us poems of resistance, power, and resilience.

We will post every poem we receive unless it is offensive (containing language that is derogatory toward marginalized groups, that belittles, uses hurtful stereotypes, explicitly condones or implies a call for violence, etc.). After the Virtual Open Mic closes, we hope to print out and mail all of the poems to the White House.

For guidelines on how to submit poems for this call, visit the Call for Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience blog post. 

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#March #Resist #Stand 

by Tamah Kamlem 

I lived under the wool of words

Unscathed like the rock redirecting the river flow

Heartbeat steady like the stream 

Sight – constellational

Following the depth beneath the flowerbed

In the meantime… 

A man throws tantrums

A man says “My African-Americans…”

A man fights over what is said of his hands

America with eyes glued to the screen

A man says I’m the least racist person

(The man is white so it’s true when he says it) 

A man calls you a rapist

A man plays Pokémon with nuclear dolls

America pulls a joke on itself

The man has risen to the throne

At last

Oppression wearing its wedding gown

Committing to itself

America can’t decide whether to chant down or exult  

A man unearthed the past

A man made a slogan to call Jim Crow times great

A man gets presidential applause for holding back on insults

America rattled – hides her face, then wakes up.

Now, watch America as she roars on all the streets in her belly.